National Rural Health Day: Highlighting Essentia team members, programs that enhance care in our communities

In the lead-up to National Rural Health Day on Nov. 20, Essentia Health is highlighting its commitment to strengthening rural health care.

The week of Nov. 17, Essentia will share stories and highlight innovative programs designed to keep care close to home in rural communities. Across Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin, 84% of Essentia’s geographic service area is classified as rural. Essentia is the largest nonprofit rural care provider in Minnesota and is a national leader in value-based care, an innovative care model that prioritizes quality, outcomes and cost controls over patient volume.

Media coverage: Leading in rural health care demands a commitment to thinking big and to thinking differently. Here are media stories spotlighting Essentia's willingness to do exactly that.

• Prairie Public Radio: Dr. Cathy Cantor discusses Essentia's success with value-based care
• Duluth News Tribune: Mobile mammogram stations offer rural communities avenue for early detection
• KVRR: Essentia's Community Health Workers help those in need during the holidays
• Fargo Forum: Guest Column: Celebrating innovation and opportunity in North Dakota on National Rural Health Day
• Minnesota Public Radio: Essentia Health tribal relations director says rural and Native care go hand in hand
• WDIO: Deer River and Essentia Health launch virtual healthcare at the high school
• Northern News Now: Essentia recognizes newly graduated surgical technologists
• Mesabi Tribune: On National Rural Health Day, honor providers with action and advocacy

“Rural health care deserves more than just a day,” said Dr. David Herman, CEO at Essentia Health. “Health care for our rural communities is what we do 24 hours each day, throughout the year. Essentia’s care teams have earned a reputation for excellence and continue stepping up to deliver expert and compassionate care in rural communities to help our neighbors live their healthiest life, where they choose to live it. In the face of significant national and statewide challenges, our focus remains on delivering sustainable, high-quality care today and well into the future.”

In their own words: Essentia colleagues explain the importance of — and their passion for — making expert health care available close to home in the communities they serve.

• Nicholas Allard, PT, Physical Therapy, Moose Lake
• Fallon Peplinski, DO, Family Medicine, Spooner
• Cassie Plante, APRN and CNP, Family Medicine; April Rohrer, APRN and CNP, Family Medicine, Casselton
• Jessica Schwartz, RN, Addiction Care Management, Brainerd Lakes area

Value-based care explained

According to the American Medical Association, “value-based care is really a care-delivery system that rewards for patient outcomes and quality of care, managing a population rather than transactional care.”

Essentia participates in 22 value-based programs with both government and commercial insurance payers, serving more than 200,000 members. By thriving in this model, Essentia removed $159 million from the total cost of care across all value-based programs from 2018 to 2023. For Medicare patients alone, Essentia has saved taxpayers $77 million in health care costs over the past five years.

Exceptional outcomes for rural communities

Once again, Essentia earned high marks across all clinical quality measures in this year’s MN Community Measurement (MNCM) report. The report, a trusted statewide resource for timely, comparable information on health care quality, costs and equity, highlights Essentia’s commitment to delivering excellent patient care and outcomes.

Essentia facilities across rural communities have earned four- and five-star ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), placing them among the best care locations in the country. Essentia Health-St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd, for example, earned a five-star rating from CMS, landing in the top 10% of the more than 4,600 hospitals evaluated nationwide. CMS ratings are based on how well a hospital performs across different areas of quality, like the patient experience, providing timely and effective care, readmission rates, mortality and safety.

Building a stronger rural health care workforce

Only 10% of all physicians in the U.S. practice in rural areas. Health care providers most often practice where they train, and physicians who complete a rural residency are 4.5 times more likely to enter rural practice.

The Duluth Family Medicine Residency Program is a collaboration between the University of Minnesota medical school, Essentia and Aspirus St. Luke’s to prepare family medicine physicians for the needs of rural and underserved communities. All faculty members, as well as the residents and other staff, are employed by Essentia, which manages the program and develops the curriculum. Essentia has hired 15 physicians from the Duluth Family Medicine Residency Program in the past five years alone. Since 1975, the program has prepared more than 400 physicians to practice in rural communities.

Essentia has also cultivated more than 20 academic practice partnerships with local educational leaders to address workforce shortages by helping introduce future health care workers to rural areas. In partnership with Minnesota State University Moorhead, Essentia hosts Scrubs Camp every summer, a workforce-development initiative that gives dozens of high school students hands-on experience in a health care setting.